By Pastor Jill Russell
Dear Hope Church Friends,
Greetings to you as we turn our attention to a new year and a new season of worship and reflection at Hope Church. I pray along with all of you that 2021 will be a very different year from the one we are completing. As we come into our celebration of Epiphany and the Season of Reconciliation in this ordinary time between Epiphany and Lent, I wanted to share some of what has been stirring in me. It is no secret that this theme of reconciliation has been a driving force in my life. From my sensibilities as a peacemaker and middle child, to my work before coming to Hope Church as an interim pastor often consulting in situations of conflict, to my interest and training in restorative circles, this call of the gospel in 2 Corinthians resonates deeply within me:
“So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.” 2 Corinthians 5:17-19
I am continually reminded, though, that this work of reconciliation is much more nuanced than the word reconciliation often connotes in our imaginations. I’m unclear whether this is because of midwestern values of niceness or our not so healthy aversion to conflict, by which I really mean aversion to discomfort. There is a strong current among some of us to grin and bear it or to smile in public and vent in private. When these very cultural but not-at-all-biblical sensibilities about “keeping the peace” get overlayed on top of this idea of reconciliation, there is little wonder that people have some serious questions about it. In the Lent issue of Salt & Light, I reflected with you why we talk increasingly about justice during this Season of Reconciliation. One quote from that article was from Martin Luther King Jr’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail:
“My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent resister may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word ‘tension.’ I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth.” [emphasis mine]
To which I added: “Just as we need to probe what is broken in this world if we ever hope to be part of making things whole again, we need to be willing to risk examination if we want the joy of new life. We cannot have the one without the other. The revealing and addressing of injustice makes way for genuine peace and reconciliation.”
I know a number of Hope Church folks have been delving deeply into the investigation of anti-racism work. We will be offering an adult education series that will take us deeper into that investigation alongside a Bible study written by the Rev. Dr. Denise Kingdom Grier taking us more deeply into the 1 Corinthians 13 Project, which is all about learning to live into the more excellent way of love. When you take up this work of disrupting systems of privilege and examining your own formation around this question of racial identity, there is a tremendous amount of tension. It is visceral. It is uncomfortable. Inevitable questions come up but you don’t dare voice them for fear of appearing bigoted or defensive. You shut down. You turn away. This same dynamic shows up over and over again when dealing with conflicted family relationships or frustrations with church structures or attempting to do something constructive to pave the way for something new. Intellectual questions that feel pressing to some are experienced as dismissive and off base by others. Angry feelings. Guilt feelings. Disconnection. Shame. This is the swirl that can derail efforts at justice and reconciliation. Especially if reconciliation is understood as just smoothing it all over.
I have found a powerful resource that has supported me as I have been doing some reconciliation work in my own life. I have been working at reframing how I hold all the competing needs in my life to which I am passionately committed but cannot tend as thoroughly as I would like. It has been a season of discernment and letting go and reevaluating how I approach so many different things: pastoring, parenting, daughtering, how I give myself to the work of justice and reconciliation, how I show up in my marriage and friendships. That is to say nothing of how COVID required so much pivoting and reassessment from all of us. How do we stay whole and sane and engaged, especially when so much of the engagement brings us into those arenas of tension and discomfort and challenge?
The resource of support I found will be at the center of a small group offering I am going to lead in the Season of Reconciliation. The book, by Lorilyn Wiering, is called Reclaiming Connection: A 40-Day Journey into Deeper Connection with Yourself, Others, and the Divine. Before you panic and say to yourself—“Oh, I can’t possibly commit to something every day for 40 days”: have no fear. I started this last Lent and only got to day four by the time I took my medical leave (which means I set it aside for a long time). When I did pick it back up, I found it to be incredibly life giving and I’m still only on day eighteen at this writing. I take my time. I read a bit and reflect on it. Let it percolate for a few days, come back to the second part. Pray on it and journal about it. And set it aside again. This is not about rushing, accomplishment, or instantaneous anything. This is the soul work that can help us show up with much more resilience for the discomfort and visceral reactions to justice work and relationship work and the stuff of making change… slowly… quickly… whatever the Spirit is making possible in that moment. Watch for more details about how to connect to this small group if you desire.
However you enter into this season, may it be a rich time of growing into the ministry of reconciliation in ways that are life-giving, challenging, and in service of love.
Peace to you,
Pastor Jill
Endorsement for Reclaiming Connection
Below you can read the endorsement I wrote for Lorilyn as she puts out the second printing of her book.
In recent years, I have returned to the spiritual wisdom that Lorilyn Wiering has offered over and over again. If you were to comb through my sermons you would find a number of different quotes and images that come from her Soul Sanctuaries emails. Especially when 2020 hit and I was meeting with more and more people wrestling with their spiritual anxiety and wanting to stay connected to the hard and challenging work of learning to be an anti-racist in their spheres of influence, I found myself pointing to Lorilyn as an important companion for the journey. What I did not anticipate was that when I needed to do some deep soulful reflection of my own that Lorilyn’s book Reclaiming Connection would be at the center of the Spirit’s work of healing and restoration for me. Designed as a 40-day journey, this resource takes you deep into the transformative energy of the wilderness. You are gently encouraged day by day to reclaim the central truth of who you are and learn to probe the sacred wisdom, love, and instinct that guide us in our life with God who calls us to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly. I am excited to be using Reclaiming Connection as a small group resource through our Season of Reconciliation in our church’s life in the start of the new year.
~ Rev. Jill R. Russell, pastor at Hope Church, RCA in Holland, MI